Day 45 felt less like a making session and more like a conversation with gravity, structure, and the limits of my current approach.
I set out to create a double flower pendant using Mokume Gane, with delicate individual petals forming each bloom. In my mind, it was light, detailed, and elegant. In reality, the petals had other ideas. They struggled to stay attached, and even when I tried to repair and re-bake them, they cracked or fell apart again. It became clear quite quickly that what works at earring scale doesn’t necessarily translate to pendants.
This day pushed me into problem-solving mode. I found myself pivoting mid-process, trying to engineer a way to support the flowers, even individually, so that they could function as a pendant. It wasn’t the creative flow I had imagined, but it was valuable in a different way.
Although I didn’t achieve the final vision, the lesson was clear and important: structure matters just as much as design. Thickness, support, and how elements are joined all play a critical role, especially as pieces get larger.
This didn’t feel like a success in outcome, but it absolutely counts as progress. I’m starting to understand not just how to shape clay, but how to build with it—and that’s a different skill entirely.
